New Friendships
by Horselvr2
Summary: Max and the Flock are on the run again. Only this time they have stumbled into a group of girls strangely similar to them. Max soon nicnames these girls Mermanflies: mermaid, human, and butterfly. As they share stories, lives will change forever.
1. Chapter 1

**New Friendships**

A _Maximum Ride _and a _SWISHY_ short story

**Max**-

I sighed. It was almost dark and I couldn't even find a place for us to kick back and sleep. Yes we were on the run again. And yes we were a homeless bunch of kids again. Hey! I didn't ask for a bunch of crazy maniacal scientists to try and kill us. It's just a way of life.

"Yo," Fang interrupted my thoughts. I looked over at him. "We could chill on the beach for the night." He jerked his head toward the shore.

Great a beach. We all know how many great times I've had on a beach. First Ari and his buddies surprise us and nearly rip Fang to shreds, then I almost have a heart attack because Angel discovers she can breathe underwater, then in my attempt to rid myself of a chip the school embedded into my arm, which my mom, Dr. Martinez removed shortly after, then—

_Don't think about the bad times Max. We've had a bunch of great times on beaches, too._ Angel told me in my head. Yes Angel can read minds.

_Like what? _I thought back sourly.

_Well you and Fang had your first kiss on a beach. _I blushed at that.

"Ok, ok. Fine we'll stay on the beach." I was rewarded by the sound uprise of cheers.

"Ooh I love beaches! Will we be able to go swimming? I remember the first time we stayed on a beach. Do you think the flyboys or those ninja things will find us here?"

Nudge shut up once I looked at her.

"I don't know. Let's just find a place to sleep first." I was so tired I could barely walk straight, but I had to look strong for the kids.

"We already have." Iggy said from behind me. I looked over at him and the Gasman startled.

"What? How? You didn't even leave."

"We left five minutes ago and just came back." Iggy said matter-of-factly.

This was bad. Was I so tired that I didn't even know when part of my flock was missing? I needed some sleep _now_.

Iggy and Gazzy led us over to a bunch of bushes and rocks. It was nicely secluded and hidden. A perfect spot for a bunch of runaway bird-kids.

Ok I should probably tell you about my family. My name is Max, short for Maximum Ride. My family and I, or the flock, were_ created_ at a school where we ended up being 98% human and 2% bird. I was created to save the world from Itex-which I already destroyed but there are many other branches around the world with crazy scientists- and to keep you from killing yourself and the Earth from your own pollutants. However not everyone wants the flock alive. Many have tried to kill us because we are an 'old generation' of mutants, so I can't let that happen.

The flock consists of me, Fang, Iggy(who's blind) we're fourteen, Nudge who's 11, the Gasman who's 8, and his blood related sister, Angel who is 6 but claims to be 7.

So in a nutshell we live a pretty tough life.

When I came back to present time, Iggy and Gazzy were building the fire and Fang was assigning himself first watch for the night.

"You shouldn't take first watch," I told him. He turned his dark eyes on me, giving my stomach flutters. "You're as tired as I am. Let Nudge take first watch."

"_I'm_ taking first watch" he said defiantly. I wanted to argue with him but there was no point and I was way too tired. As the others settled down for the night, Fang got up from his seat by the blazing fire to sit down next to me. He put a hand on my shoulder; I smiled up at him and fell unconscious.

After what felt like 5 minutes, I felt someone shaking me awake. I jumped up ready to fight. Then I relaxed, it was only Fang. But he had a serious look on his face so something was up. He pressed his pointer finger to his lips and beckoned me to follow him.

I slowly and quietly got up and picked my way around the sleeping bodies of my flock. I reached out and grabbed Fang's hand, but he barely noticed instead he looked like he was listening to something.

Then I heard it, a splash and some whispering voices. Who in their right mind was swimming at this time of night?

We slipped behind a bush and faced the people in the water. With my raptor vision I could easily see four girls and a guy in the water. One of the girls was a red-head. I gripped Fang's hand harder. I knew how he could be around red-heads.

He squeezed my hand and shook his head. I turned my attention back to the swimmers. The girl with red curly hair was hauling herself out of the water. Her legs dangling over the rock she sat on.

Wait. Those weren't legs. I used my raptor vision to zoom in. I gasped at what I saw. The girl had a long, red, orange, and yellow scale studded tail! What has this world become?


	2. Chapter 2

**New Friendships**

A _Maximum Ride _and a _SWISHY_ short story

**Cheryl**-

It had been a very long day for my friends and I and the only thing we wanted to do was to find somewhere to sleep. However time and time again Neptune has shown us just how dangerous it is for us to sleep unguarded underwater. Neptune is the king of the ocean, otherwise known as Poseidon. Most kings protect their people, no not Neptune. He is trying to kill us.

"There's a shore up ahead without any people on it." Julia swam back and reported. "We should be safe there."

So we followed her to the shore. As I surfaced and poked my head out of the water, my black hair plastered to my back, I felt a twinge in my stomach. I closed my eyes and concentrated on it.

A video played in my mind. The four of us were sitting on the rocks on the shore drying our hair and warming our legs which had just formed. Tyler was no where in sight. Now out of the corner of my eye, I saw two kids step out from behind a bush eyes narrowed to slits.

I opened my eyes and blinked. Not much time had passed but the girls were already about to haul themselves out of the water.

"Wait!" I whispered urgently. "It's not safe, some kids are here."

"No one is here, calm down Cheryl." Cynthia said impatiently. I grabbed her wrist.

"Someone _is_ here." I hissed "We should go somewhere else." She glared at me and I narrowed my eyes at her. Cynthia and I hadn't been getting along too well since our argument yesterday because one of my predictions had been slightly wrong.

"It's only kids. What harm can they do?" Cynthia jerked her wrist away from me and before I could say anything else, she was out of the water.

"You idiot!" I muttered. Cynthia's red, orange and yellow tail was fully visible to the area where the teens would appear.

10 seconds passed and now Cynthia's tail was turning into legs and jeans pants. I didn't see any movement from the bushes. Cynthia smirked at me.

"We might as well go too. We need to get out of the water." Althea said. Julia followed her as they scrambled onto the shore. I felt a tap on my shoulder and tuned around, it was Tyler, I had forgotten he was there.

"See you later." He said blinking warmly at me before disappearing underwater. When I turned back to the shore, all the girls were sitting daintily on the rocks warming their legs. I sighed.

As I scrambled onto the shore I hissed into Althea's ear.

"Our secret is out now. I hope you know that." She stopped combing her dirty blonde hair and looked up at me horror in her blue eyes.

I took a seat on the sand and waited for the kids to appear. 5. 4. 3. 2…

1. I saw a movement from their hiding spot. Their eyes were narrowed but I could easily tell they were freaking out. There was a girl and a boy and they looked about our age more or less.

The girl had blonde/brown hair, brown eyes, and open cuts along her arms and face. The boy was almost invisible in the dark because he was wearing all black and his black hair was so long it covered his eyes.

I heard Cynthia curse behind me as I stood up to greet the visitors. "Hey. You're about a millisecond late." The girl's eyes flashed, but then softened. She glanced at her friend before speaking

"Glad to see we're not the only living freaks in the world." I blinked. I didn't see that coming and that's saying something, from a girl that can see the future.

"What do you mean? You callin' us freaks? And how are you freaks?" I asked slowly.

She pointed at our legs. "We saw what happened. Your tails, I mean."

I crossed my arms. "Yeah I know." I grumbled and glanced at Althea and Cynthia.

"How?" she asked. I sighed, I might as well tell them. Althea nodded.

"I can… see the future and other stuff." Both of their eyes widened a fraction. "We can all do something." She looked at her friend. I couldn't tell what his dark eyes showed but she could.

"Ok, she told you something but you still haven't answered her question. What do you mean you're 'freaks' too?" Althea asked backing me up.

The girl sighed, stepped away from the boy, looked around, shrugged her shoulders and—holy starfish. I felt my eyes widen to the size of manta rays. Wings were extending from her back. They were white with speckles of brown. 14 feet of feathery fun. They were gorgeous.

Then the boy showed his wings. They were pitch black like a raven or a crow's wings attached to a human. Our wings were colorful pastels that matched our tails.

"We have one more secret." Julia said while she extended her green and black pastel wings. Her wings caught the moonlight and glittered.

"What are you?" the boy asked incredulously.


	3. Chapter 3

**New Friendships**

A _Maximum Ride _and a _SWISHY_ short story

**Max**-

Ok this is crazy. First we see the tails. Ok they're mermaids. But no the tails disappear and now they have legs! But that's not all! No! As I keep watching, they have freaking wings!

"What are you?" I heard Fang ask. I shook my head and put my hand to my forehead. I'm dreaming. That's it. These girls aren't real. I just need to wake up and get on with my life. Unconsciously, I pulled my wings in.

_Believe what you see, Max._ Welcome back Voice long time no annoy.

_How can I possibly believe what I am seeing, Voice? I mean they are freakin' mer-human-butterflies! Hmm, mermanflies. _I thought back to the Voice. _Yeah and you're a human-avian hybrid mutant. What difference does it make? _I answered myself.

"Look it's late. I'm tired and I'm sure you are tired too. We'll talk more in the morning." The girl with the layered dirty blonde hair nodded. She must be their leader. "Follow me, I show you the rest of my family." I turned around and walked toward the sleeping flock hoping they were still there. I felt Fang next to me. "I must have finally gone crazy." I whispered in his ear.

"Well I guess I'm right up there with you this time."

When we go to the clearing, the kids were still sleeping but Iggy was wide awake.

"Max? Fang? Is that you?" He sat up and turned in our direction.

"Yeah it's us. Don't wake the others. We have some guests." The mermanflies stepped softly into the clearing and looked at all the kids with wide eyes except the black haired girl.

"Iggy meet—um I don't know your names." I looked at the girls. They hesitated and looked around at each other the blonde decided to speak.

"My name is—Althea, the red-head is Cynthia, the one that showed you her wings is Julia, and the girl with the super long black hair is Cheryl. All of them gave a little smile when their name was called, even Cheryl.

"Well I'm Max, this is Fang and that's Iggy over there. I'll introduce you to the others in the morning." I sat down and bit back a yawn. "Just get some sleep. Second watch Iggy." I closed my eyes but didn't fall asleep until I heard the mermanflies fall asleep and Fang's arm was over me.

The next morning when I woke up, the mermanflies were still asleep and every flock member was present so I guess the fish weren't killers. I felt Nudge wake up next to me.

"Max, I'm hungry." I stroked her hair.

"We'll go find some food later."

By now the whole flock was awake but the mermanflies were still fast asleep.

"Who are they?" Nudge asked as she caught sight of our guests."

"Flying fish humans." I said simply.

"What?"

"Shh, don't wake them. They're going to talk to us when they wake up."

Cheryl stirred and sat up. "Well I'm up now. Ask any questions you want."

"Who are you?" Gazzy asked. Cheryl looked over at him tiredly.

"Cheryl and you are?"

"The Gasman!" he said excitedly. Cheryl looked stunned then horrified. I guessed she saw his special ability in the future. I laughed.

"Don't worry I made sure he only uses _it_ in times of desperate measures. But he is also skilled in the art of mimicry."

"So you all have skills like us right?" she asked. I nodded.

"I can read minds, control minds, shapeshift, breathe underwater, and talk to fish!" Angel blurted out before I could stop her. Cheryl looked shocked. "What can you do?"

"Well—I can talk to fish and animals, see the future, and control electricity."

"Awesome!" Nudge squealed. "I'm magnetic, can hack into computers, and feel who's been there when and where." I was starting to get uncomfortable. It wasn't right for us to be telling these strangers our secrets. Although they are pretty much like us minus the school and test tube baby thing.

The other mermanflies were awake now. They blinked warily at all the eyes watching them.

"So what's your story?" Iggy asked. "You've got to have a story."

Althea sighed and cleared her throat. "About a month and a half ago our 'parents' told us that they weren't our parents and that our real parents were held captive by a guy named Jared. He captured them when we were babies in hopes to take over the world using our powers."

"How did he know about your powers?" Nudge asked

"We're part of a long lost prophecy." Althea lowered her head. "It said we would be given dominion over water, land, and air." She made air quotes around dominion. "Which is why we have tails, legs, and wings." She stretched out her light blue and green butterfly wings and relaxed.

Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy's jaws dropped. "No way." Nudge breathed.


	4. Chapter 4

**New Friendships**

A _Maximum Ride _and a _SWISHY_ short story

**Cheryl**-

I leaned back and lay my head in my hands as Althea went through a brief summary of our life story. I still didn't know why we were trusting these kids with our life story. We've known them for a good half hour or less and already they knew everything about us.

"So back to the story," Althea continued. "Jared wants to use our powers. Our real parents have been held captive for about 13 years and we are on our way to free them. However, Neptune, god of the seas, wants us dead because we are more powerful than he is."

"This is like a fairy tale! Cool." I heard Nudge whisper in Angel's ear.

"No, not cool." I said to her picking my head up. "This is real life and every day we are fighting for our lives and hoping that each day we are here, our parents aren't already dead because they are useless to that dogfish Jared!" I hadn't realized my voice was rising so I tried to lower it. "I don't know what your deal is, but this is most definitely not a fairy tale."

Nudge lowered her head and was silent. Max looked at her and then the rest of the flock before tuning to me and my friends.

"We should understand reality as much as you do. No our parents aren't held captive and no the god of the seas isn't after us, but we were kidnapped from our parents before our eyes were even opened by a bunch a mad scientists who rudely unraveled our DNA and combined bird DNA with it and forced us to live in dog cages for most of our lives." I noticed Julia was flinching at every word Max was saying. Poor girl must be hard feeling someone's feelings when someone is steaming mad.

"We were tested on more times than any of us can even remember and because of one of those tests, Iggy is permanently blind!" she pointed at Iggy and he to lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Then when we finally escape, Erasers, human-lupine hybrids, are everywhere ready to rip us to shreds. All the while it is my mission to save the world from these mad- scientists cause in their 'genius' minds, they think it is right to destroy half the world's population to create a perfect more advanced generation!" Fang put his arm around her shoulder but in her rage she flinched at the touch.

There was silence after Max's outburst.

"Well I guess we need each other more than we think." Cynthia said seconds later. "We both live crabby lives and you could teach us stuff like how to fly better and fight on land."

"Yeah they should stay. Please let them stay." Max looked into Angel's pleading eyes.

"Yeah I know their staying." She told her, and then looked at us. "We can't let them leave after we've told them all about us." I nodded grimly.

"Well now that that's all out there, let's get outta here." Fang said getting to his feet. "Flyboys could find us in any minute." He jumped into the air and the flock followed him.

I shook out my dark purple and blue wings. We had only flown like twice and I was still a little scared, which is something no one else but you will ever know. And If I find out that you told someone. You're dead.

I jumped into the air and flapped my wings. My belly lurched when my body fell back down to earth before the second flap. Soon I was flying with the wind whistling through my hair.

I caught up to Max, who was flying as close to Fang as possible in the air with 14 feet wing spans.

"So you never told us your special skills." I nodded toward Max and Fang.

"I, uh, have super flying speed, a voice and can breathe underwater." She said hurriedly.

"A voice?" I asked. Does she mean like a speaking voice, a conscience or something else?

"Yeah! You mean you don't have one?" she said sarcastically. "They're on sale at Wal-mart this week. Roll back prices."

"Wal-mart? What's that?" I asked. Ok you might know what Wal-mart is but I mean I've only been in America for about week or less. So give me a break. Max and Fang exchanged a look of shock.

""It's one of the biggest stores in the world. We might stop by there to stock up on food."

"So what do you do?" I asked Fang. He didn't give any sign that he heard. "I said, what—"

"Blending." He interrupted. "I can blend into things and breathe underwater."

"Yeah and he's got some killer fighting skills." Max added with a smile. Fang gave a ghost of a smile, tipped his feathers and barreled into Max, who happened to barrel into me. I don't really even remember what I was thinking when I fell, and fell even further. Although I remember my belly dropping a whole lot farther than my body did.

My wings trailed out above me and I feebly tried to flap, to no avail. I closed my eyes waiting to splatter on the earth, when I felt strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me upward.

"What are you doing?" It was Fang. "Flap harder!" I strained my wing muscles and obeyed. Fang let go of my waist when he was sure I wouldn't fall again and we made our way back up to the others.

"What were you doing?" Max screamed at me. "Did you want to die?"

"No… I" I stopped to catch my breath. "My wings aren't that strong yet. I've only flown like twice." Max rolled her eyes at me.

"Well word of advice. If you fall, remember you have wings and can fly!" she snapped. I winced as I felt a twinge in my belly, my heads up to a future video. I closed my eyes and concentrated on it, but also reminding myself to flap. What I saw sent shivers down my spine. I opened my eyes.

"Umm guys? There are some robot things flying toward us and they look pretty dangerous."


End file.
